Deportation Stigma and Re-migration

Many, if not most, of those who are forcibly expelled from the country to which they have migrated will not settle in the country to which they have been returned but will leave again. A recent article examined some of the reasons why this should be so. It was argued that in addition to the factors that had caused the original migration, such as fear of persecution, continuing conflict, insecurity, poverty and lack of opportunity, deportation creates at least three additional reasons that make re-migration the most likely outcome. These were debt, family commitments and the shame of failure and or ‘contamination’ leading to stigmatisation. In this article, we explore the stigma of failure and of contamination attached to those deported, and the ways in which they respond to and manage this stigmatisation, including by re-migrating. We use Goffman's concept of stigma and the refinement offered by to further nuance understanding of the impact of deportation

The Prawn <i>Macrobrachium vollenhovenii</i> in the Senegal River Basin: Towards Sustainable Restocking of All-Male Populations for Biological Control of Schistosomiasis

<div><p>Early malacological literature suggests that the outbreak of schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by aquatic snails, in the Senegal River basin occurred due to ecological changes resulting from the construction of the Diama dam. The common treatment, the drug praziquantel, does not protect from the high risk of re-infection due to human contact with infested water on a daily basis. The construction of the dam interfered with the life cycle of the prawn <i>Macrobrachium vollenhovenii</i> by blocking its access to breeding grounds in the estuary. These prawns were demonstrated to be potential biological control agents, being effective predators of <i>Schistosoma</i>-susceptible snails. Here, we propose a responsible restocking strategy using all-male prawn populations which could provide sustainable disease control. Male prawns reach a larger size and have a lower tendency to migrate than females. We, therefore, expect that periodic restocking of all-male juveniles will decrease the prevalence of schistosomiasis and increase villagers' welfare. In this interdisciplinary study, we examined current prawn abundance along the river basin, complemented with a retrospective questionnaire completed by local fishermen. We revealed the current absence of prawns upriver and thus demonstrated the need for restocking. Since male prawns are suggested to be preferable for bio-control, we laid the molecular foundation for production of all-male <i>M. vollenhovenii</i> through a complete sequencing of the insulin-like androgenic gland-encoding gene (IAG), which is responsible for sexual differentiation in crustaceans. We also conducted bioinformatics and immunohistochemistry analyses to demonstrate the similarity of this sequence to the IAG of another <i>Macrobrachium</i> species in which neo-females are produced and their progeny are 100% males. At least 100 million people at risk of schistosomiasis are residents of areas that experienced water management manipulations. Our suggested non-breeding sustainable model of control—if proven successful—could prevent re-infections and thus prove useful throughout the world.</p></div

Phylogenetic tree of the IAGs.

<p>The tree is based on the CLUSTAL W algorithm of all known IAGs from decapod crustacean species, calculated and presented by MEGA4 <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003060#pntd.0003060-Tamura1" target="_blank">[48]</a>. A <i>C. elegans</i> insulin-like protein serves as an out-group. The numbers on the junctions represent the percentage of attempts, reflecting the specific divergence within 5,000 replicates, while the bar represents the number of amino acid substitutions per site.</p

Monthly distribution of <i>M. vollenhovenii</i> catches in the Senegal River.

<p>(A) Total catch of 631 prawns around Diama Dam during 10 months between September, 2012 and August, 2013. (B) Comparisons between male and female average sizes and an average of the largest three specimens in each group. Bars represent SEM.</p